Culturally Responsive Computing: A Theory Revisited

• In Event: 324 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. RGC and Educational Tools

Abstract

Despite multiple efforts and considerable funding, historically marginalized groups (e.g. racial minorities and women) continue not to enter or persist in the most lucrative of fields—technology. Understanding the potency of culturally responsive practices (CRP), some technology enrichment programs modified CRP principles to establish a culturally responsive computing (CRC) experience for disenfranchised groups. We draw from our respective praxes developing two such initiatives and reconceptualize culturally responsive computing as a heuristic. In this theoretical article, we offer a more nuanced vision of CRC considering intersectionality, innovations, and technosocial activism. Implications for the newly defined tenets consider programmatic, theoretical, and methodological concerns.

Authors

• Kimberly Ann Scott, Arizona State University

• Kimberly Sheridan, George Mason University

• Kevin Clark, George Mason University